According to the results of the new scientific work, minor difficulties with orientation may indicate Alzheimer’s disease even before standard tests for memory reveal a deterioration. During this study, scientists conducted an experiment involving about 100 elderly.
Scientists found that the elderly with a subjective decrease in cognitive abilities (SCD), that is, when they themselves felt that their memory was deteriorating, less accurately oriented in space than their healthy peers. It is also known that people with SCD are more at a higher risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease at a later age.
As part of the experiment on volunteers aged 55 to 89 years, VR harnations were put on. They needed to go through an empty plain in the virtual space. Their task was also to follow the floating ball along a winding trajectory, and then indicate the starting point. After that, they had to turn and look in the direction in which they were at the beginning of the journey.
Despite the fact that all participants showed normal results in standard tests for memory and thinking, people with SCD constantly made more serious navigation errors. These difficulties were connected not with the movement, but with cognitive disorders. This was said by Dr. Vladislav Segen, the first author of the study.
Experts believe that the group with SCD developed dysfunction of the lattice cells – special neurons that help us navigate in space, building the mental system of the coordinates of the environment.
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